NHL Rumors: Vancouver Canucks, and the Florida Panthers

Danila Klimovich hasn’t asked for a trade

Rick Dhaliwal: Vancouver Canucks Danila Klimovich has been a healthy scratch but his agent Dan Milstein is okay with the Canucks development plan for his client: “I am happy with the plan going forward for Danila. We have not asked for a trade, he will not play for another team or go to junior.”

The Panthers have some time before they need to clear salary

David Pagnotta: Irfaan Gaffar and Pagnotta on some ‘Market Rumblings.”

** NHLRumors.com transcription

Gaffar: “It’s funny you mentioned LTIR and cap space and things of that nature. The Florida Panthers are going to welcome Anthony Duclair back when he’s ready to return to the lineup. How are they going to make it work?”

Pagnotta: “Well I talked about the situation with Toronto. Similar to Edmonton. Why can’t you just add someone to replace Evander Kane? Well, you have to have cap space once they return.

Florida does not have cap space to have Anthony Duclair come back in the lineup at some point later next month. So his $3 million cap hit has to be cleared or he can’t play.

So they’re going to be starting, they’re starting right now, Bill Zito is. They’re looking around the league to see what options are available to them in terms of freeing up some cap space.

Does that mean moving out a Patric Hornqvist? And does that mean to have to incentives a team to take on his $5.4 million cap hit? Are there other avenues they can explore?

I don’t think they have much of an appetite to move Duclair and his $3 million cap hit. It would alleviate any pressure for them for the time being but really what this comes down to, is them looking at other options and alternatives to see how they can create some additional cap space.

That’s going to be interesting to watch in South Florida over these next few weeks.